My ‘System’

Over at College V2, Sean has an ongoing series called What’s Your System, where various people talk about how they stay organized. I have already posted some things on Productivity, but I figure I can talk about what I do.

I rely heavily on my Treo 650 Smartphone. It is a Palm based phone that comes with all the standard Palm software: Calendar, Tasks, Memo Pad and Contacts. The calendar is the most important of the 4. All of my appointments and major assignments are in it. Everything is color coordinated and has a reminder for it. I can’t say how many times the alarm on my Treo has saved me. The tasks are also a nice feature for really important stuff because on their due date they show up on my calendar page. The memos and contacts are kind of self explanatory. Everything also syncs with Outlook, which I use when I am on my computer. The Treo also interfaces with a web-calendar made by Verizon that I can use if I need to. I have also downloaded a nice, free application for my Treo (or any palm based device) called School Work. It’s a cool assignment pad that you can take down your assignments with- it organizes them by day, week and month.

Though I did mention Tasks for Palm above, what I rely on for all my tasks (not just the real important ones), is Remember the Milk. It is a free web based tasks application that allows you to post tasks with notes, due dates, websites, time allocation, etc., as well as the ability to E-Mail yourself tasks. There is also a mobile version of the site that I access via my Treo. It really is a great site that I highly recommend. (hmmm maybe a full write up soon?)

Finally, I always carry a small legal pad with me incase I have to jot a lot of things down. I usually end up transferring those things to my Treo, but the legal pad is good for meeting notes, etc. O yeah- GMail is piviotal in my life as well. I use it for email reminders, as a file server, and a conduit for all of my other email (school, business, personal, professional).

Leave some tips or tricks in the comments if you’d like. Later!

Update: This post is featured on College V2! Thanks Sean!